Question Library: Short Answer Questions
Short answer questions allow students to write their responses in a text box. Questions with answers that are very short (no longer than one or two words) are appropriate for short answer questions. While questions requring longer answers are possible, the chances for accurate autograding declines.
Although short answer questions will be autograded, you may need to correct the autograded score unless all possible correct answers were included in the question. For information about text pattern-matching options for autograding, see Using Regular Expressions.
The Multi-Short Answer Question differs from the Short Answer Question in that the short answer question can support multiple answer boxes, but requires distinct answer lists for each answer box. The answers provided by a student for a Multi-Short Answer question can be supplied in any answer box.
Example 1:
(in this example, there are a number of ways students might phrase the 1 correct answer)
Example 2:
(in this example, students can provide any 1 of 8 correct answers, but they must type it exactly as shown)
Example 3:
(in this example, students must provide any 2 correct answers, typed exactly as shown AND in the specified blanks. Compare this to the multi-short answer question type.)
To set up Short Answer questions:
1. Access Quizzes and click 
Question Library.
2. Choose Short Answer Question from the Create New drop-down menu, then click Go.
3. Enter a Title to easily distinguish one question from another when building new quizzes, re-using questions, and/or grading. (Titles will not appear to students in any quiz, but they are visible to instructors.)
4. If desired, set the Points for the question. Note that you can easily change this value when using the question in a quiz. For greatest flexibility, we suggest leaving the value at 1 in Question Library.
5. If desired, set the Difficulty of the question. Difficulty is optional. It does not affect how Carmen grades questions. It is generally used as a way to organize questions.
6. Enter the Question Text in the box provided; you can use all the options in the HTML editor to format or add resources. If desired, add an image to the question.
We recommend uploading all images to a specific folder the File Manager before adding them to quizzes using the Find option. This helps ensure images stay associated with questions properly during Copy Course Components.
7. Enter possible answers:
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Set the size of the Input Box in the drop-down menus to choose how large or small you want the answer area to appear; this setting controls the size of the box, not the number of characters that can be typed. A small box could indicate a one-word answer; a larger box might indicate that the answer is several words.
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If your question has more than 1 blank, click 
Add Answer to add more boxes. Student responses for each blank must match your supplied answers for each blank (see Example #3 above).
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For each blank, enter acceptable Answer options to be used when autograding by typing the answer in the text field and choosing the weight. Continue adding all acceptable answers and weights.
To make autograding more effective, take care to list all possible correct answers -- and remember to consider whether answers should be case-sensitive. You can also include partially correct answers.
If your question has 1 blank, set the weight of correct answers to 100%.
If your question has more than 1 blank, you will probably want to divide the available points between the two blanks. For instance, in Example #3 above, the correct answer in each blank is worth 50%; students must complete both blanks correctly to get full credit.
If partial credit is to be given for any answer, assign its weight appropriately. The total weight for any question may exceed 100%, but no single answer may exceed 100%.
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Under Evaluation, retain the default of Case Insensitive so that an answer choice will be auto-graded as correct regardless of whether a respondent uses capitalization, etc. For further latitude in auto-grading correct answers, choose Regular Expression, and refer to Using Regular Expressions for more information.
8. If desired, add hints or feedback to a question by expanding the Question Hint and Question Feedback menus.
You must enable Hints when setting up quiz properties in order for hints to appear to students. If hints are enabled, students can click a link to receive them. Students will only see Feedback if they are able to see the questions in the quiz submission window. (See Setting Up Quiz Properties to enable hints and feedback for a quiz.)
9. Click Preview to view your question as it will appear during use and grading. Click Save to save
the question and return to the main page, Save and Copy to save the question and create a
new question of the same type and that retains the copied properties, or click Save and New to
continue creating questions of the same type.
Current as of December 2010 (D2L 9.1). Not significantly impacted by December 2011 update (D2L 9.4).
